Apparently This Matters: Ostrich Pillow

The Ostrich Pillow has raised more than $130,000 on Kickstarter. It looks like this. That is all.

Story highlights

"Apparently This Matters" is CNN Tech's weekly, offbeat look at stories trending on the Web

This week, Jarrett ponders the appeal of the viral Ostrich Pillow

The project has raised more than $130,000 on Kickstarter

Creators claim a nap with the pillow makes you 37% more efficient

Being a highly productive, contributing member of society demands effort and commitment. It requires sacrifice and a passion for teamwork.

Basically, I'm not interested.

On the other hand, I'm wildly enthusiastic about napping. Which does literally nothing for the betterment of the world, unless you take solace in the fact that at least I'm not walking around touching things.

But I really do enjoy my regularly scheduled naps. So much so, in fact, that my close friends know not to call between 2 and 4 p.m. on the weekends. The "baby" is sleeping.

And that's why I was rather excited this week to discover all the social media buzz over the amazing new Ostrich Pillow. Essentially, it's a soft, padded tube in which you can bury your entire head to take a nap, so long as you don't mind burying your entire head in a soft, padded tube. Of course, there's really no way you should already know whether this is something you like.

"What? You haven't tried?"

The creators actually call it a microenvironment, but I think that sounds a little too much like they're describing the inside of my colon. Which is a little unsettling. You know, as opposed to a soft ... padded ... tube. OK, so it's pretty much the same thing.

Regardless, I did some serious soul searching -- I pictured myself wearing it in public situations like at an airport or a bris -- and decided that, yes, I'm totally down for living in this tube. It's so stupendous!

The Ostrich Pillow was conceptualized by the European design duo kawamura-ganjavian, who wanted to find a creative way to provide people with the health and productivity benefits commonly associated with power napping. Power napping is a lot like normal napping, only when you're done with a power nap, you're expected to actually do stuff.

When you wake up from a normal nap, it's completely OK to glance around the room, confirm that John Hodgman riding a unicorn was just an amazing dream, and then roll over to fall back asleep.

But the Ostrich Pillow is specifically designed for those shorter periods of rest -- the power naps -- and the creators boast that their invention allows you to sleep anytime, anywhere by creating a "little private space within a public one, to relax and unwind."

Right now, the product is in the middle of a one-month run on the crowd-funding website Kickstarter, where the creators were hoping to raise $70,000 to get the project off the ground. The current haul is more than $130,000. Which according to my calculations is ... more.

Perhaps this says a lot about people's attitudes toward napping and the importance of taking a little siesta during the busy workday. The official sales pitch for the Ostrich Pillow even claims that a 20-minute power nap can increase productivity by 37%.

Amazing! I can only dream of all the things I would get done at the office if I actually worked at 37% productivity. And to think, all I need is a quick nap as soon as I get to my desk.

"Let's start the morning meeting. Where's Bellini?"

"Wearing his tube, mentally preparing to give us slightly less than 50%."

By and large, the Ostrich Pillow seems like a great idea. It's dark. It's cozy. It has a place for your hands. But the big question is whether people will actually wear it in public. And we really can't say yes or no based on what I would do, since a better assessment would come from somebody who actually has the ability to feel shame.

Nevertheless, I'm still hoping to get my hands on one of these to give it a proper test drive. But, until then, if you need me, I'll be sleeping under my desk.

The other day I saw a death metal band hanging out by their tour van in the parking lot behind a club. They were all dressed in black, and may or may not have been working on lyrics to a new song about fire and lamb meat.